Rose and Thorn
by Badger the Gnome
Summary: A young man is forced to leave the one he loves for her own safety, and regrets it for the rest of his life. One-shot Snape/Lily.


Rose and Thorn  
  
A one shot angst fic by Comet-hime  
  
Fandom: Harry Potter Pairing: Snape/Lily Rating: PG  
  
This just came on a whim after reading OotP, there are no spoilers, really, but I felt inspired. I think this could really be the case for them, even though it's painfully tragic. Anyway, enjoy, and please review.  
  
No one had ever loved as well as they had. They were inseparable, twin souls, more one being than two. Every time she said so, he smirked in his sad way, not bothering to say how cliché it was. She wouldn't have listened anyway.  
No one knew of them, of what they were. It would have been scandalous, the worshipped head girl going out with a boy like him. He was just the greasy-haired git everyone made fun of, a nobody. He had no real friends, Potter and his clan had made sure of that since the day he arrived. Except her. Oddly enough, Potter himself had brought them together, otherwise she probably would have never noticed him staring at her all the time, and she would never have had to rescue him from those horrible boys. They never would have gotten the chance to talk and learn about each other. And, given that Potter had his sights set on her, he never would have kissed her before his rival had the chance.  
She wanted to be open about their relationship more than anything, but he knew better than that. She said she didn't care what people thought of her, but he cared, especially when it came to his family. Not that he was embarrassed of her, no; he had stopped thinking of her as just another mudblood a long time ago. But if his father ever knew, even had the slightest idea of who she was, he'd kill her before she would even have warning.  
That's why he broke it off in the end, you see, he couldn't risk her death knowing very well that it would be his own fault. She cried and cried when he told her, but it made no difference. His mind was made up. He left her with a face emotionless as stone, but that night, he cast 'silencio' on his poster bed and cried himself to sleep. Both of them knew they would never love anyone else the way they had loved each other.  
It wasn't until they were out of school and away from Hogwarts that he found out. He heard it from his father, in passing, during one of their talks about him joining the Death Eaters. He didn't want to, but how could he tell his father no without getting himself killed? Then he found out that his precious Lily was going to marry that bastard James Potter. Deep in his heart he knew why; he had broken her, broken her beyond repair and she had no choice but to take the first chance at a normal life that was offered to her, no matter who offered it. But of all people, it had to be him. The fact that it was his school rival, the boy who had tortured and humiliated him, made him forget all reason. He succumbed to his hate and did as his father asked, living now only to please the Dark Lord.  
And then she died. Voldemort had killed her, though Potter had given his life to save her and their son. And she died anyway. Years later he still had the scars from where he clawed at this own skin and screamed with despair unmatched by any he knew. He knew then that James Potter had loved her, and Lily hadn't minded, she hadn't minded it at all. He wondered if she had forgotten him in her years as wife to that scum that had taken her away. His heart told him that she hadn't, she never would. So all he could do then was forgive her and let himself grieve in silence.  
The years passed, and the baby she had given her life to save grew up and came to school, just when he had settled in to his job as Potions professor. How he hated that child that looked so much like the boy who had made his own childhood hell. But Harry wasn't just James', he was Lily's too, and so Snape could do nothing but watch over the boy for the sake of his lost love.  
He still visits her grave every year, spitting on James' side of it, while laying flowers over the ground where he knows her body rests. Every year he kneels there and talks to her as if she never left. Then he kisses her name engraved on the stone and stands to leave, always saying the same thing, to make sure she'll hear it one last time, just in case she's listening.  
"I love you, Lily. I always will." 


End file.
